


Nudging Destiny

by magician



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Backstory, Bingo, Bingo Card Challenge, Challenge Response, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-24
Updated: 2018-02-24
Packaged: 2019-03-23 03:33:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13778793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magician/pseuds/magician
Summary: How did Blair get to Rainier?





	Nudging Destiny

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2018 Sentinel Bingo Challenge for the prompt "signs".

"But, sweetie, why do you want to go to college?  The _world_ will be your university," Naomi said, throwing out her arms expansively.  
  
Blair sighed. "Mom, I want to study anthropology.  Yes, part of that is studying cultures all over the world, but I still need to attend an accredited college to get a degree.  Otherwise, I can't work in the field."  
  
"Well, you could study abroad, then.  Doesn't the Sorbonne have courses?  Wouldn't it be lovely if you saw the Lascaux Caves?  They've been closed to the public, but you could study them if you were at a French university."  
  
Blair sighed again. "That's archeology, Naomi, not anthropology.  I want to study cultures of people who are living right now, not dead for thousands of years. Besides, I'll have to learn all kinds of new terminology.  Trying to do that in a language I don't know will make it a lot harder."  
  
"What about Cambridge, or Oxford? They speak English there.  I'm sure they have great programs."  
  
"Yeah, they do, but why go that far away when there are great colleges here in the U.S.? We're in California, what about Stanford?"  
  
Naomi wrinkled her nose. "Honey, you _know_ I just want what's best for you.  Maybe you should meditate on it."  And that was that.  Naomi wouldn't even entertain his ideas until she was sure he'd deliberated the prescribed amount of time to satisfy her. Being a minor, he needed her to sign off on whatever university he attended and stay in her good graces until he was of age.  
  
"Okay, Mom," he said, as he left for his room.

 

*****

  
Unlike his mother, Blair never believed that meditation would lead to enlightenment.  When he started the practice at around age ten, he found it boring and often fell asleep sitting on his zafu.  Later, he did find it soothing when things were troubling him, and it often help clarify his mind when it was going in different directions.  He sat cross-legged on his bed and closed his eyes. He slowed his breathing, taking a long breath in and then a long breath out. _Give me a sign_ , he thought.  _Something that will get me to the right college_.

He used that as his mantra: _give me a sign_ (breathe in)... give me a sign (breathe out)... _give me a sign_ (breathe in)... _give me a sign_ (breathe out)... _give me a sign_ (breathe in)... _give me a sign_ (breathe out)...  
  
Nothing.  
  
He opened his eyes and scanned his room for inspiration.  He glanced at his desk, eyeing the pile of college brochures he requested from all over the country.  He'd narrowed his search to ones with good anthropology departments, but it was still quite a stack.  Suddenly, he had an idea.  
  
He cracked open the door to see where his mother was; she was puttering in the kitchen.  He went back to his desk and pulled out a candle, a sage smudge stick and matches.  He lit the candle and put it on his desk, then used it to light the tip of the smudge.  Once it was burning nicely, he blew out the flame. The smoldering end released a nice billow of pungent smoke.  He went to the door and blew the smoke under the doorway.  If Naomi came by, she would smell it, believe he was in deep meditation and not disturb him.  
  
Next, he picked up each brochure.  Most of them were little more than advertisements, trying to entice students to their hallowed halls. _give me a sign give me a sign give me a sign_ He picked up and discarded one after another. Columbia, Yale, Princeton, Harvard; he considered most of the Ivy League colleges to be too snooty and too expensive. Dartmouth had a more down-to-earth reputation and MIT was a haven for geeks like him. But something about them didn't appeal, and he set the brochures aside.  
  
He'd given a lot of thought to the University of Chicago.  It had a killer program and a real lure: Eli Stoddard, one of the world's greatest living anthropologists, was a visiting staff member there. Just thinking about what he could learn from Stoddard made Blair's head spin. He put the brochure in the "save" pile and continued. Brown, U Penn, Vanderbilt, Stanford--all read and discarded.  Washington University had a lot going for it, but nearby Rainier had a better research library. He flipped through the Rainier materials. It was the only university to include a full-size book, the glossy pages providing details about each major's curriculum.  As he turned to Anthropology, he saw it-- _THE SIGN_.  
  
_"The Anthropology Department is pleased to announce that Doctor Eli Stoddard, renown for his work with the Yanomami of the Orinoco Basin and the Dayak of Borneo, will be joining Rainier for a five-year term as professor-at-large. We look forward to gaining from Doctor Stoddard's insights into…"_  
  
Blair knew he could put the rest of the brochures in the trash.  Now, all he had to do was convince Naomi that Rainier was the place he was destined to attend.  


*****

  
  
Blair came out of his room two hours later, figuring that was enough time.  Naomi was still in the kitchen, checking something in a pot.  "Sweetie!  Have you been meditating all this time?"  Her voice held a tinge of doubt, especially since her own sessions tended to last about an hour.  
  
"No, Mom, not all the time.  I got a vision and I've been trying to draw it." He pulled out a large paper on which he'd sketched a rough line of mountains, using drawing pastels. At one end was an obvious landmark--Mount St. Helen's. 

Naomi took the paper and studied it intently. "Honey, do you know what this looks like?" When Blair shook his head, she said, "It looks like Mount St. Helen's, the volcano in Washington State that blew up a few years ago. Don't you remember?"  
  
Blair's eyes widened. "Oh, yeah. It was dormant and then became active." He looked at the drawing.  "You're right. It does look like that."  He waited for her to say something.  
  
"Is there a university in Washington that has an anthropology department?"  
  
"Um, yeah.  Rainier has a good one."  
  
"How close is it to the volcano?"  
  
A tricky question.  Too far away and she might doubt his vision.  Too close and she might decide it was dangerous to attend Rainier. "It's in Cascade, in the northern part of the state, near the ocean," he answered.  "Maybe a hundred miles away?"  
  
Naomi let out a breath.  "Okay, that's good then.  Sweetie, I think you've gotten a cosmic sign. Especially with that name, Rainier--no mistaking where you should go.  Why don't you send for an admissions application, so we can get started on the paperwork? You'll be finished with high school before you know it."  
  
"Okay.  I'll also see if I can apply a scholarship."  
  
"That would be wonderful!  Now, guess what I've made just for you--tongue! Your favorite!"  
  
Blair smiled and gave her a kiss on the cheek.  "Thanks, Mom.  You're the best."  
  
As he sat down to eat, Blair just _knew_ attending Rainier was the right decision.  He only felt a little guilty at giving Destiny a shove.

 

 

~~the end~~


End file.
